Record Details
Hanging Wall Box for Sara Hoch
This is one of a group of small boxes and tape looms that are inscribed with the names of young women who attended one of three schools operated in Pennsylvania by Lutheran schoolmaster Johann Adam Eyer. The Sara Hoch listed in Eyer's school register for 1786 may have been the recipient of this decorated wall-hung box. The boxes and tape looms were made and decorated by John Drissel, a son of a Mennonite carpenter who was living in Milford Township by 1787. The box is of dovetail construction and is decorated in paint in a calligraphic frakturlike style. The front is ruled in ink into five reserves, the central portion with Hoch's name and "Anno 1799" inscribed over a flower. A large compartment on either side contains a motif of a single closed tulip and a smaller flower and leaf design, the whole bordered by a single wavy line.
Stacy C. Hollander, "Hanging Wall Box for Sara Hoch," in American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 300.